Shovel



(No Model.)

B. P. ANTHONY.

SHOVBL.

No. 332,132. Patented Dec. 8, 1885.

N PETERS. mwumo m Washington. D-C,

' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

BENJAMIN F. ANTHONY, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

SHOVEL..

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 332,132, dated December 8, 1885.

Application filed July 15, 1884. Serial No. 137,754. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, BENJAMIN F. ANTHONY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Shovels and Scoops; and I do hereby declare that the same are fully de scribed in the following specification and illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

The object of this invention is to provide for shovels and scoops a broad step-piece or boot-protector, which may be detachable and applied to the upper edge of the blade of the implement, so as to protect the sole or shank of the boot from injury when pressed upon said edge in use.

By my invention is produced an improved scoop or shovel adapted especially for sewer work, where men work much in the water, wearing rubber boots. These are quickly cut out in the shank by pressure upon the thin upper edge of the common scoop or shovel used in this work, and are useless afterward.

The drawings show, in Figure 1, a shovel made in accordance with my invention, and in Fig. 2 one of the step-pieces is shown detached. Fig. 3 represents in section modified forms of these protecting-pieces.

A is the handle, and B the blade, of the shovel, made, as usual, of sheet metal, and having the re-enforce O for securing the handle in position. D D are the step-pieces, preferably of malleable iron, formed in pairs of about the shape shown. Each piece fits snugly to the blade B and re enforce O, and is secured firmly by rivets E through the blade and the flange of the step-piece, the upper part of each piece to which the boot is applied extendiug about horizontally over the edge of the blade and for some distance either side thereof. There may be a single flange on each of the pieces D to fit against the face or back of the blade, as in Figs. 1 and 2, or the construction may be as indicated in Fig. 3, in which two flanges are shown separated by a space to receive the blade, and both perforated for the confining-rivets. This figure represents in one view the device as a solid malleable casting and in the other as a hollow sheet-metal piece bent to shape.

I am aware of the Patent No. 8,635. granted to Kimball, January 6, 1852, for shovels, showing a. strengthening-piece extending entirely across the top of the blade, and formed with a central socket to receive the handle and secure it to the blade. I disclaim such socketed cross-bars and haudlesupports, and limit my claim to boot-protecting pieces of suitable material extending from the handle either to the right or left and secured only to the blade. I have found in practice pieces of rawhide, leather, or rubber packing so secured to answer my purpose admirably.

I claim as my invention 1. In combination with a shovel or scoop, a bootprotecting step-piece, as D, on the top of the blade and extending from the handle toward the side of the blade, but independent of said handle, said piece having a flange which is secured to the blade, substantially as described.

2. The combination, with the blade of a shovel orseoop, of a boot-protecting step-piece having a flat top and flanges extending down in contact with the face and back of the blade, said step-piece being secured independently of the handle, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I hereto affix mysignature in presence of two witnesses.

BENJ. F. ANTHONY.

NVitnesses:

N. H. SPENCER, C. G. Knvns. 

